A data center functions as facilities that stores data from users or servers and provides connection lines to Internet, maintenance and operation services, or the like. The data center is established by a plurality of business systems (server group) and each business system includes a plurality of types of servers (nodes) communicably connected to one another. For example, each business system has a three-layered structure configured by a Web server, an application (AP) server and a database (DB) server. Also, information indicating whether each server constituting a business system is a Web server, an AP server, or a DB server may be referred to as a “server type”, an “attribute of a server”, or a “role of a server”. Also, three server types as described below are respectively described as Web, AP, and DB.
With the increase in system scale, the data center has employed an automatic operating software (for example, run book automation (RBA)) which reduces management cost. In a management tool, such as RBA, an operation target server is recognized as a business system unit or a role unit, and automatic operations of the recognized operation target server are executed according to various flows. Each “flow” is created by using a “component” that is a smallest operation unit. As the “component”, there are, for example, a component for performing “an extraction of configuration information” or a component for performing “a check for start of a service”.
FIG. 27 illustrates a flow for checking a normal operation, which is generalized in a business system unit as an example of “flow”. The flow illustrated in FIG. 27 is created by alternately arranging the component for performing “an extraction of a server” and the component for performing “a check for start of a service”. In FIG. 27, three “service extracting” components respectively extract a Web server, an AP server, and a DB server, and the “service start checking” component performs a check for start of a service.
In recent years, with the cloud computing of a system, an addition (introduction) of a server to an existing business system frequently occurs. When a server is added to the existing business system, there is a need to determine a role of the added server in order to execute a flow as described above. In this case, determination of a role of the added server may be performed by the above-described management tool as described below. That is, when a server is added to the existing business system, the management tool detects an added server and determines a role of the added server based on a communication state between the added server and another server.
As described above, when a role of the added server is determined based on a communication state between the added server and another server, a defect as described below with reference to FIG. 28 may occur. FIG. 28 is a diagram explaining the defect. In the example illustrated in FIG. 28, six servers S1 to S6 are included as a business server which is managed by the management server. The existing business system (server group) A is configured by a Web server S1, an AP server S2, and a DB server S3. Also, in a business system (server group) B including an existing Web server S4 and a DB server S6, it is assumed that an setup operation of the AP server S5 is being executed in order to dynamically add the AP server S5. Also, at this time, the management server can detect the added server S5, but the management server is not able to recognize that a type of the added server S5 is AP or the server S5 belongs to the business system A.
As illustrated in the lower portion of FIG. 28, there is a case in which a communication referring to information of the AP server S2 belongs to another business system A from the added server S5 during setup of the added server S5. The communication may occur in the case of using information (environment or the like) in the AP server S2 of which setup is completed in consideration of the setup of the added server S5. When such a communication occurs, a communication with the AP server S2 in the business system A different from the business system B to which the server S5 belongs is introduced to a communication state of the added AP server S5. As a result, inconsistency occurs between a role of the added server S5 determined from a communication state and a role of the added server S5 determined from configuration information (role or the like) of another server.
That is, the management server mistakes the server S5 added to the business system B as a DB server belonging to the business system A and registers the server S5 in configuration information. Therefore, when a flow for checking a normal operation is performed on the business system A, the management server extracts the AP server S5 belonging to the business system B as the DB server and performs flow control (check for start of a service) on the erroneously-recognized added server S5 as illustrated in the upper portion of FIG. 28. Therefore, the management server is not able to correctly perform the flow for checking a normal operation on the business system A.
In this case, even when the added server S5 is being set up, and is not capable of providing a service, the added server S5 is extracted as an operation target (DB server) of a flow for checking a normal operation. Therefore, although a role or the like of the added server S5 is precisely determined, the management server performs flow control (for example, check for start of a service) on the added server S5 which is being set up in which provision of a service is not performed and is likely to mistake the added server S5 as being in an abnormal state (error).